Translate blog

Friday, May 24, 2013

Fox News chief Roger Ailes has sent a memo to his subordinates at the
leading cable news network. He sent this memo to his staff today in
connection with the federal investigation into an alleged leak to Fox
News reporter James Rosen, a story that the Washington Post’s Ann E. Marimow broke earlier this week.

The memo’s a masterpiece, too. For all those who wonder what it is about
Ailes that endears his people to him — and that makes him such a good
interviewee for any media reporter lucky enough to get an audience with
him — just read this.

Dear colleagues,

The recent news about the FBI’s seizure of the phone and email
records of Fox News employees, including James Rosen, calls into
question whether the federal government is meeting its constitutional
obligation to preserve and protect a free press in the United States. We
reject the government’s efforts to criminalize the pursuit of
investigative journalism and falsely characterize a Fox News reporter to
a Federal judge as a “co-conspirator” in a crime. I know how concerned
you are because so many of you have asked me: why should the government
make me afraid to use a work phone or email account to gather news or
even call a friend or family member? Well, they shouldn’t have done it.
The administration’s attempt to intimidate Fox News and its employees
will not succeed and their excuses will stand neither the test of law,
the test of decency, nor the test of time. We will not allow a climate
of press intimidation, unseen since the McCarthy era, to frighten any of
us away from the truth.

I am proud of your tireless effort to report the news over the last
17 years. I stand with you, I support you and I thank you for your
reporting with courageous optimism. Too many Americans fought and died
to protect our unique American right of press freedom. We can’t and we
won’t forget that. To be an American journalist is not only a great
responsibility, but also a great honor. To be a Fox journalist is a high
honor, not a high crime. Even this memo of support will cause some to
demonize us and try to find irrelevant things to cause us to waver. We
will not waver.

As Fox News employees, we sometimes are forced to stand alone, but
even then when we know we are reporting what is true and what is right,
we stand proud and fearless. Thank you for your hard work and all your
efforts.